Finance

Savings banks’ net profits hit record high

PUBLISHED :March 05, 2018 - 09:39

UPDATED :March 05, 2018 - 09:39

[THE INVESTOR] Savings banks in Korea saw their earnings reach a record high of more than 1 trillion won (US$920 million) in 2017 on sharply increased interest income, the financial watchdog said on March 5.

The combined net income of the 79 savings banks came to 1.07 trillion won last year, up a whopping 24 percent from the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

Their interest income soared by 619.6 billion won last year from a year earlier, while noninterest income declined by 123.7 billion won.

It marks the first time that their combined net profit has exceeded the 1 trillion-won mark. The previous record was 925 billion won posed in 1999.

The combined assets of the savings banks came to 59.7 trillion won as of the end of last year, up around 14 percent from the prior year. Their equity capital surged 18.4 percent to 6.8 trillion won over the cited period.

Their loan delinquency ratio stood at 4.6 percent as of end-2017, down 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier, with the portion of loan-loss provisions reaching 116 percent.

The average capital adequacy ratio of the savings banks reached 14.31 percent as of the end of 2017, up 0.36 percentage point from a year earlier.